Facebook, Inc. (FB) is constantly looking for ways to expand into new business verticals. This is evident from the company’s investments in virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Similarly, Facebook is trying to tap the lucrative opportunity available in the ecommerce industry, which is expected to grow exponentially in the next decade. On June 22, the company announced the launch of Shops on WhatsApp and Facebook Marketplace. Previously, the feature was available only on Instagram… Source link

By Steve Gorman TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (Reuters) -British billionaire Richard Branson prepared on Sunday to climb into his Virgin Galactic passenger rocket plane and soar more than 50 miles (80 km) above the New Mexico desert in the vehicle’s first fully crewed test flight to the edge of space. Branson, one of six Virgin Galactic Holding Inc employees strapping in for the ride, has touted the flight as a precursor to a new era of space tourism, with the company he founded poised to begin… Source link

Virgin Galactic is set to launch its first passengers to space tomorrow morning, and you can watch the whole thing right here. The launch is scheduled for 6 AM Pacific, with streaming festivities (including commentary by Stephen Colbert) starting on the hour. This launch is the 22nd for VSS Unity, Virgin Galactic’s first spacecraft to leave the atmosphere. As before, Unity will leave the Spaceport attached to the belly of VMS Eve, which will take it up out of the thickest part of the… Source link

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7… Source link

Facebook and Instagram are making you poor, financial adviser says Keeping up with the Joneses in 2021 is next to impossible when the internet has made us all neighbors, and it’s putting a serious strain on our finances. More than a third of Americans admit social media has influenced their spending habits, according to a survey from Mint last year — even though 64% wonder how their friends can afford all the glamorous trips and cars they’re posting about online. Obviously, competing with… Source link

Yandex.Rover autonomous delivery robot on a snow-covered route to transport online food orders … [+] Russia’s largest internet company, Yandex NV, is deploying suitcase-sized robots that seek to provide takeaway despite a winter snowstorm.Photographer: Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg © 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP Yandex, a Russian technology company working on self-driving systems, has partnered with GrubHub to deploy a fleet of delivery robots on selected university campuses in the United… Source link

Biden just canceled millions more in student loan debt — who qualifies this time? The Biden administration is wiping out another tens of millions of dollars in student loan debt, affecting borrowers who were deceived by schools that are now out of business. With this new debt forgiveness, the Department of Education has now canceled at least $3 billion in student loans since the beginning of the year. Borrowers have been given more room in their budgets to save, invest or get a grip on their… Source link

A new Biden stimulus benefit offers free health insurance for 6 months The massive COVID rescue package President Joe Biden signed back in March — the same law that included $1,400 stimulus and the monthly payments for families that start next week — is now offering free health insurance to millions of Americans, through the end of 2021. The benefit’s zero-premium health plans became available on July 1, with no income limits for qualifying. But there is one major eligibility… Source link

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – Attorney General Daniel Cameron has joined a coalition of 37 states and the District of Columbia to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google.  The suit claims Google unfairly restricted competition with the Google Play Store, harming consumers by limiting choice and driving up app prices. This antitrust lawsuit is the newest legal action against the tech giant,… Source link

Google’s business model was under attack again this week, with a “broad coalition” of privacy oriented tech firms asking regulators to take a stand against “the collection of data from across websites and services,” enabling “dominant platform actors to abuse their positions by giving preference to their own services.” ADVERTISEMENT Google wasn’t named, but then naming Google wasn’t really necessary. The campaign was organized by Chrome rival Vivaldi, which… Source link